Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX WiFi: A Compact AM2 Solution

Our test system is fairly basic, featuring a X2 4850e, a mid-level dual core
processor with a low 45W TDP cooled by a stock AMD heatpipe cooler connected
to a variable DC fan controller so the fan's power draw does not come into play.
The rest of the system consists of a single stick of Corsair memory, an Asus
Blu-ray drive, a 5400RPM notebook hard drive and an OEM Seasonic 400W power
supply. The operating system used is Vista Home Premium SP1 (32-bit).

We tested the board with the CPU at stock settings with Cool'n'Quiet enabled,
and underclocked to 1.5GHz and undervolted to the minimum stable voltage (0.875V).

Test Results: Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX WiFi

Test State

X2 4850e @ 2.5GHz (C&Q)

X2 4850e @ 1.5GHz (0.875V)

Mean
CPU

Peak
CPU

System Power

Mean
CPU

Peak
CPU

System Power

Off

N/A

2W

N/A

2W

Sleep (S3)

N/A

3W

N/A

3W

Idle

N/A

30W

N/A

30W

Rush Hour
(H.264)

15%

22%

~36W

13%

24%

~37W

Coral Reef
(WMV-HD)

45%

55%

~45W

50%

60%

~39W

Drag Race
(VC-1)

60%

76%

~59W

83%

91%

~42W

Disturbia
(Blu-ray H.264)

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

CPU Load

N/A

91W

N/A

43W

CPU + GPU Load

N/A

99W

N/A

50W

Grey boxes indicate test failure.

At stock settings, the system idled at 30W, drew between 36W and 59W during
video playback, and consumed 91W at full CPU load. Stressing the IGP with FurMark
increased power consumption by a further 8W. While the GeForce 8200 chip is
powerful enough to play all our test clips properly, a driver issue prevented
us from playing an actual Blu-ray movie.

Cyberlink's Blu-ray Advisor utility found that the driver that shipped on the
installation disc was the problem. Updating to the latest drivers from
nVidia did not resolve the issue. We also tried to use ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater
as an alternative player to PowerDVD, but it too failed to play our Disturbia
Blu-ray disc, displaying only a black screen though the drive did appear to
be reading from the disc. As it played our H.264 and VC-1 encoded clips smoothly,
we would say it is technically capable of playing any Blu-ray disc, but for
the moment, driver issues make it impossible. This may well be fixed at a later
date.

Underclocked and undervolted, power consumption dropped dramatically, but
the ability to play our VC-1 test clip was compromised. VC-1 playback was plagued
by dropped frames and out-of-sync audio. 1.5GHz just didn't seem to be enough.

System Power Consumption vs. Intel mITX Boards

Test State

ZotacNF610i-ITX

IntelDG45FC

Zotac GeForce8200-ITX

Idle

35W

35W

30W

Rush Hour
(H.264)

~43W

~42W

~36W

Coral Reef
(WMV-HD)

~42W

~43W

~45W

Drag Race
(VC-1)

~48W

~47W

~59W

CPU Load

65W

64W

91W

CPU + GPU Load

67W

65W

99W

Compared to Zotac and Intel's LGA775 mini-ITX boards (paired with an E7200
processor), the GeForce 8200-ITX is less efficient, except in idle or
with the lightest of loads. When a significant amount of CPU or IGP work is
required, either Intel platform, despite having a higher TDP CPU, is far more efficient, using around 30W less power altogether.

System Power Consumption vs. AMD mATX Boards

Test State

Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H

Gigabyte
MA74GM-S2

Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX

Idle

38W

31W

30W

Rush Hour
(H.264)

~53W

~58W

~36W

Coral Reef
(WMV-HD)

~65W

~58W

~45W

Drag Race
(VC-1)

~70W

~66W

~59W

CPU Load

101W

92W

91W

CPU + GPU Load

109W

97W

99W

On the AMD side of the playing field it was a different story. Compared to
the Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2,
the most efficient mATX AMD board we've tested to date, Zotac's 8200-ITX was
downright frugal, using 22W less playing H.264, 13W less playing WMV-HD, and
7W less playing VC-1. Full CPU and GPU load results were similar though.